REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE by Kimberly ChiarisFIRST PLACE(Click on image for larger view)

Kimberly Chiaris says, "How do we remember who we are and where we came from? By holding onto
belongings our loved ones leave behind when they die? Treasuring written and oral stories passed down to future generations? Recording our own stories? These artifacts of our lives can become shades of allusive memories that are compressed, reinterpreted, or even forgotten within a generation or two. Things once cherished canbe lost, destroyed, tossed or given away.

In this series of work, I layer images together to create personal venerated relics that hint at a universal story of origin, history, identity, loss and trace memory.

I am interested in how personal histories are recorded and remembered. We understand our own history through personal and emotional recollections, written records, family momentos, photographs, oral and written stories. All of these are pieces of a puzzle that can give us glimpses into our past but none are thoroughly complete. Memory is fluid and subjective and open to reinterpretation. Add time to the factor and memory becomes even less reliable. I have 3 adult children.

Each family member has a unique recollection and interpretation of their childhood years. I am intrigued by the imprint (intentional or not) that we as parents left on our children, and the way they now process and understand themselves as well as their past based on some of those illusive impressions and memories. The scroll has historical roots as an ancient form of record keeping used to document events, letters, financial transactions and stories. These ancient scrolls are invaluable resources that help us try to understand past cultures, their values, histories, ethics and customs, yet it only gives us a tiny glimpse into who they were. History was molded by the people that took the time to write."

Kimberly Chiaris was born in Phoenix Arizona and resides in Colorado. She received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute majoring in Photography. Her interest lies mainly in hand made processes that are “objects of desire”. Her practices often involve digital composites combined with analog and alternative processes that include elements of mixed media. Her focus is mainly on themes about origin, history, identity, and trace memory. She exhibits her work in galleries and magazines around the United
States. Kimberly also loves teaching and igniting curiosity in people through art
processes. She has taught numerous photo based art classes and workshops at
Universities, Colleges, Museums, galleries, and nonprofit organizations.

Jung S Kim says, "‘Circle III: Go and Stop’ is a self-reflective project, which is separation progress from real memories to fantasized images. These photographic works that give me a personal reflection of my childhood, utilizing "Hwatu", a Korean gambling card as the background, related to family breakdown due to gambling.

Hidden in my world, in quiet, melancholy childhood, I would identify myself with my parents with distorted images of fantasy and dream. At that time, there was no clear separation between the real memories and distorted images under my delusion. I chose a method of self-portraits, as my parents were both objects of admiration and fear. Through the visualizations of these images, I have attempted to reconstruct chaotic visions for facing up and overcoming my traumatic experiences while also exploring and developing my own sense of self at the same time."

Jung S Kim was born and raised in Seoul, Korea also majored in Photography in Chung-Ang University in her mother country.

After immigrating to the US in 2002, she has continued to build her career as a photographic artist. Currently, nationally and internationally Her work has been shown at Providence Center for Photographic Arts, Filter Photo Festival, Humble Art Foundation, The Center for Fine Art Photography, The Griffin Museum of Photography and New York Foundation for the Art, The 3rd Asian Women Photographer Showcase Obscura Festival, and also Daegu Photo Biennale.

She had been invited to attend The New York Times-Lens New York Portfolio Review and her work was chosen for inclusion in “Photography NOW 2014” at The Center for Photography at Woodstock.

Kim won the ‘The Grand Prix Juror Award of Merit winners’ Fine Art Photography Award, Director’s Choice Award of the C4FAP and AHL Foundation of Visual Arts Award. Also, her “Circle” series has been published as “Zine Collection No10, Circle” by Editions Bessard in Paris. Elsewhere she has participated in Arles Photo Festival in France, Kwangju Biennale, and Seoul Metropolitan Museum, Daelim Museum in Korea and Soho Photo Gallery, HERE Art Center, Elga Wimmer PCC, Dean Project in NYC, etc. Now her collections are The Center for Photography at Woodstock in New York, FNAC (Fonds National d’Art Contemporian) in France, Luciano Benetton Collection in Italy, and Daelim Museum, Samtan Art Mine Museum in Korea.

JP Terlizzi says of this series, 'Mother', The course of a life can be determined by a single, sharp moment; one that is inevitable and ultimately essential. A moment of trauma, setback or challenge reverberates for years to come, daring us to keep moving forward, and shaping our capacity to connect and flourish.

My mother was devastated by my father’s infidelity, which led to a bitter divorce that had a profound impact on our family. As I witnessed her life unravel, I thought about strength of character, and began to wonder whether it was an innate quality or a personal choice. How is it that some emerge from the most difficult of moments better and stronger, while others find comfort in solitude, anger, jealousy and despair?

It’s been over 45 years since that traumatic event, yet my mother has never fully recovered nor has she felt the need to seek professional help for her mental stability. Instead, I witnessed a woman who thrived on self-pity and detached herself from loved ones. As a result, her extreme actions and behavior were a detriment to the entire family.

Mother explores the emotional and psychological terrain surrounding the ending of relationships and the loss of personal identity. I use photography as a means to interpret and understand my mother’s experiences, and piece together a tattered family narrative scarred by emotional trauma. For me, the process was one of personal discovery, but more importantly, it provided closure. A therapeutic process emerged where the feelings of sorrow, disappointment and anger resurfaced, and I was able to tame those feelings through acceptance and forgiveness."

JP Terlizzi is a visual storyteller who uses photography to explore themes of memory, relationship, and identity. Drawing inspiration from his personal experiences he captures moments that convey narratives—whether the story is a framed moment that reveals something about family and home, or a poetic interpretation of a fading reality, the feeling of loss and detachment are recurring themes in his work.

Born and raised in the farmlands of Central New Jersey, JP currently lives in Manhattan. His career spans thirty plus years as creative director for a boutique agency specializing in retail design. He earned a BFA in Communication Design at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and has studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York and Maine Media College. His work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad including shows at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, Umbrella Arts Gallery, New York, NY, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, The Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA, Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, Project Basho Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, Municipal Heritage Museum, Malaga, Spain, and The Berlin Foto Biennale, Berlin, Germany, among others.

He was named a Photolucida 2016 Critical Mass Finalist for his series Mother and was a 2015 Critical Mass Finalist for his series Hunter’s Calling which was also selected for the C4FAP Portfolio ShowCase Vol. 9 and ONWARD Compé '16. His work has been featured in PDN, Lenscratch, L'oeil de la Photographie, The Photo Review, F-Stop and Abridged Magazine.

Joshua Littlefield says of his series, 'Flash Bang', explores emotional experience through manifestation as a visual “sheen” onto the image itself - while this body of work is partly a discussion on my own experience of artistic creativity, it speaks in broader terms, serving as a pseudo-physical realization of emotional states, which often remain internal . By manipulating negatives post-shooting through a variety of media, these self-monologues are seen in a visceral sense , in order to wholly encompass and normalize the psychological experience . Essentially, through projecting the act offeeling onto subjects in post-work, an additional layer of reality is created - taking an aspect of the human experience that exists as an internal reality, and rendering that as an external reality as something for all to understand, rather than one to feel. It was important the the negatives themselves be directly impacted, in order to physically and permanently imprint each capture with the thoughts associated.

My work primarily focuses on the internal, and the translation of the non-physical to the physical. Much of it is an exploration into the behavior of non-material in a material setting - bringing self-monologue, past experience, thought and the untouchable aspects of the human experience into the visual spectrum through experimental means.

My photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and institutions including Foley Gallery in New York, New York, The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts and PULP Gallery in Vancouver, BC, and printed in publications including The Hand Magazine and LoosenArt Books."

Jacqueline Webster has been creating photographic works for more than 25 years.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in video from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and has studied historic and alternative processes at the George Eastman Museum, Scully & Osterman Studio, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Jacqueline is currently a faculty member at Art Students league of Denver, and in 2017 she was named one of Colorado’s top 100 creatives by Westword weekly. Showing her work at festivals and in galleries around the country, her work is included in the permanent collection of Oklahoma City Community College.

The photographs shown are Van Dyke brown prints on linen made from the wet plate collodion negatives, and are studies in the physicality of the photographic image. Working in historic processes, the act of creating photographs is an extremely physical act; from creating the still life and setting up a large-format camera, to cutting and cleaning the glass for negatives, to mixing the chemistry and hand-coating paper, the physical processes are always front and center. Translating that physicality of process for the viewer has become a focus of my most recent work. By working on alternative surfaces like fabric, wood, glass, and metal, my goal is to help the audience bridge the gap between the image and the tactile qualities of the photograph.

Exhibitions:

Still Life: The Ordinary Made Extraordinary
January 2017
PhotoPlace Gallery
Middlebury, Vermont

Heather Williamson says,"Hello, my name is Heather. It's been some years to say my name and feel good about it. Many lives I've lived and had to rid (in just this lifetime) and I've realized, my name can be very important. It can be the name associated with the ones who are forgotten, and it can be the name I go to when I have forgotten about myself.

Photography is in the air I breathe. It allows me to feel something other than me, but it also allows me to see something that is me in everything. When I don't want to feel a certain way or if I'm not feeling at all, the subjects of my work offer me courage, strength, empathy, and humility. They help me continue.

Sometimes I'm the only one who can see "it" and most times, it's suffering. (Occasionally it's happiness and that's when I can get a bit envious) Either way, feelings are very valuable to me. They are like names, they too are currency. But you know? Just because someone looks or dresses a certain way (or even smiles) doesn't mean they're ok, and sometimes, sometimes the ones thought broke and poor, the ones thought to be suffering, are exceptionally wealthy.

Most shots are right after I felt like I was about to snap, die, "lose it" and fly... Away. Far away from this world, these ways, these laws, and this pain. But somehow, someone or something appears and I'm saved. When I'm behind the camera, no one is aware of the pain in my mind and if anything, the pain gives way to understanding and for that short amount of time behind the camera, I feel right. So maybe you can imagine why, why it's important for me not to tell you how to feel or what to think and/or say. I want to see and show what is, what you and I may just be... Intrinsically. I will wait, take one shot then walk (or drive) away.

This is something I do that helps bring me closer to myself and maybe, just maybe... It will bring you closer to you. Perhaps these stories I share will make you interested, interested in what it may be like for another, and interested in what it is like for me."

Growing up Native American (with Gypsy roots) under the politically active and watchful eye of her adoptive grandmother, Heather collected and redeemed many qualities while absorbing endless ways and points of view. After her grandmother's death, she found herself catapulted into emancipation at the age of 14. This would also be the year she dove deeper into film photography.

In 2003, Williamson moved to Los Angeles which became her home for the next decade. In LA she embraced photography, music, film and writing, while also working along-side others for commercials, music videos, indie films and photo shoots. Towards the end of 2012, she found herself isolated, depleted and upon her return from Cuba, her passion for life absorbed into a life barely alive. "I found myself slowly isolating, not knowing where to go or who I was or was becoming. How does anyone know what to do when they see someone's face changing? I was terrified so, I stopped everything."

In 2014, after multiple moves, suicide attempts and hospitalizations, Heather found herself in the California Desert where she would be in treatment for over a year. She learned while being there, the most valuable piece of currency is her name. A long drawn out dusty and dirt filled road lay ahead, but she didn't mind. She also realized, your name is just as valuable as hers.

In the present, she's back to her roots and the subject of all her work is herself. No longer is anyone far from her, for she too (has) is waiting in government lines, below poverty lines and trying to make sense of self and time. “YOU HAVE TO GO OUT OF YOUR MIND TO COME TO YOUR SENSES”- Timothy Leary

She has a blog for her writing, "The Recovering Life", a mixture of prose, lyric, epic, as well as opinion, magical realism and open letters about manipulation, gaslighting, race and disease. She is solidifying a script that has been almost 10 years in the making and has written the first series of books for its prequel. She's also working on a series using American Flags for voice as well as language depicted using characters from other lives. She collaborates with a friend for music where she is the singer/ songwriter. She doesn't consider herself as singer, more of a Poetic Thug. She records sounds and make short films. She also records herself and others too. She calls these, "Noisy Letters.

Williamson says, "It's not easy to open myself up and be vulnerable, but it's harder not to. Sometimes I feel everything I live with is a curse, but in these moments where I am no longer anything, I feel right. Some aren't here anymore, and some aren't able nor willing to speak, but I'm here, so I will...

"We Must Speak About What's Killing Our Kind" (Even if this means without words. Even if this means just listening).

I am most usually finding proof. Proof I am here, or was. Proof I am listening, I have heard. Proof I am alive, I am Me. Proof, "Who is She? Really..." I hear, "You are Heather. You are real. You are a reality. You don't need proof or eyes to see, but if you do? See with everything." My head tilts, lips face the sun and my skin slightly pulls due to a soft smile... "Thank you. Ok... Ok." xx-h-"

Heather currently resides in the California Desert. She does Zazen, enjoys Paul Bloom and is interested in human behavior, psychology, theology, linguistics, religion, past lives and current ones. She enjoys horses, dirt roads, and watching dust fall off her boots.

Francis Schanberger says, "It seems strange to call something a photograph when it relies upon an act of prolonged fading. I utilize natural pigments, some gathered from my backyard and others gleaned from the kitchen, in a historic photographic process called the anthotype. Pigments are rubbed or coated onto watercolor paper in successive layers until enough density is built up. Often bits of the pigment source remain visible. I arrange clothing on top of the coated paper, sandwich the two between plywood and Plexiglass and leave them to expose in the sun for weeks or even months depending upon the time of year and the strength of pigment. The final image is a photogram and is formed by the fading of the pigment in response to howsunlight passes through the garment. In theory the anthotype will fade withcontinued exposure to light so the very act of displaying and viewing it has a cost in terms how long lived the image will be. It will fade more quickly than an archivally processed photograph but nothing lasts forever."

One of nine children, Francis Schanberger has been photographing since fourth grade when he presented a homemade, long focal length pinhole camera as his science project. An early part of his photographic career was spent working as a laboratory assistant at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine where, after hours, he would make cyanotype photograms in the laboratory using equipment and supplies that were close at hand.

After receiving his Master of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University in 2002, Francis’ photography has been characterized by an interest in historical photographic processes and staged self-portraiture.

He has been an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2005), Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts (2011) and Vermont Studio Center in 2013.

He has exhibited at Soho Photo in New York, the Houston Center for Photography, the Free University of Brussels, as well as COHJU Gallery in Kyoto, Japan.

Emma Sywyj says, "My artwork aims to capture and show life at it’s most vibrant & exciting. The photographs I take encourage people to see the intricacies & beauty beyond the everyday. My artwork is often centered around my immediate environment and cultural identity. I celebrate culture in all its varied forms all over the world. I have photographed Europe and Asia capturing countries and cultures as I experience them.

My work encourages viewers to feel awe and joy in the travelers quest and the rewards that experiencing other cultures can bring whilst developing my own cultural identity through photography.

I have been an artist for 14 years, 5 of those years I was based in London whilst studying photography at the Camberwell College of Arts at the UAL. From there I received a BA Honours in photography and a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design. I have exhibited my artwork internationally in the US in New York, LA & San Francisco and Athens in Greece and Budapest in Hungary. I have also exhibited nationally in the UK and London several times where I currently live and work. I have also been published in several independent art magazines in the UK."

Emily Verkamp says, "Through the Veil, a series of photographs, concentrates on the inter-relationship within patterns in nature. Interested in the intricate designs that form during decomposition of everything from the body to man-made objects, I use non-conventional darkroom methods and the most basic element of photography, the emulsion or “skin”, on which I create patterns that are associated with decay.

To make my positives, the gelatin-based emulsion floats on top of glass and is manipulated by the chemical processes of the darkroom. This creates a surface riddled with a variety of textures and patterns that gives each image an intense and unique physicality. These textures and patterns are formed purely through experimentation with different photo chemicals and resemble naturally occurring patterns, such as topography or the veins underneath human skin. As a result of intentional improper chemical use, the colors that form in the emulsion also occasionally resemble bruising or decomposing flesh. The use of handmade negatives and suggested photographic imagery creates abstract landscape and spatial references that add depth to the composition.

Through the Veil merges technical experimentation with my conceptual interest in the science of both photography and natural decay. Monopolizing on incorrect technique, mistakes, and chance, I create images that are undeniably beautiful. They ask that the viewer suspend their understanding of what a “good photo” is by using limited photographic representation. These abstractions bridge the mediums of photography and drawing or painting through the gestural marks created by the emulsion and the illusionistic depth created by the scanning process.

Through the scanning process and the use of layering, these images create a world of their own. Combined with their sheer size, they force their audience to question whether or not they are actually photographs, or if they are even flat. They create a unique surface, crafting a series of mountains, valleys, and crystals that seem to leap off the page. The viewer is drawn in, quite literally, to investigate. The surfaces are so inviting that they create a curiosity not only of the surface, but also of the latent landscapes in the background. The patterns created on the surface interact with the indiscernible images in the background to draw the viewer in, to look past the veil, into these worlds.

These worlds that are created in the emulsion turn the basic material of photography into the main subject matter. The cracks, folds, crystals, and color all give the images of Through the Veil a certain tangibility. Not only does the materiality of the prints make the viewer question the surface of the print, but it also makes them question what is beyond the surface."

HOUSE by Diane FensterHonorable Mention(Click on image for larger view)

Diane Fenster says of this work, 'Secrets of the Magdalen Laundries', A photo installation with sound environment by Michael McNabb,

"Fantasy is sanctuary.

Secrets of the Magdalen Laundries explores the theme of imagination in the inner life. Dreaming, reverie, and fantasy are ways of being that make the reality of circumstances more tolerable.

As a point of departure, I was drawn to the history of the Magdalen Laundries. These convent industries in Ireland existed from the mid 19th century until the late 20th century. The Magdalen Laundries institutionalized women who were smeared with the reputation of being immoral, or who were indigent, and kept them imprisoned through the social machinations of the Church. These misused women lived in punitive labor, lost to both their families and themselves. Henceforth, they became invisible, concealed beyond the margins of society.

For me, the imagination is a threshold to an inner world. I uncover the tension between an image that conjures its mutable revelations and the idee fixee. My work embodies the hidden poetry of the ordinary, making visible what previously was hidden.

At the boundaries of the visible exists the invisible.

In my images these women live in a private world of desire, longing, and unreachable fulfillment, forced into a mundane ritual of service without pleasure or amenities. Their vitality and eros, bound by the superficial morality of the Church, reemerges as images on the sheets that they repetitiously wash, a reminder of their stained existence.

They dreamed until the secret images were burned onto the sheets.

Sheets facilitate dreaming. They enfold the body, carry its warmth, desire, perfume, and wrap it in death. I work on discarded sheets to give form to the imagination that releases desire in spite of circumstances. The sheets move from matter to metaphysics, reminding us of the body and its dreams. The portraits from the Magdalen Laundries appear and disappear as you move around them. Viewed from the oblique perspective, the images vanish like the women lost in time. Facing them, they assume their own dreaming existence."

Diane Fenster's art first received notice during the era of early experimentations with digital imaging. Her work has been called an important voice in the development of a true digital aesthetic. She views herself as an alchemist, using digital tools to delve into fundamental human issues. Her work is literary and emotional, full of symbolism and multiple layers of meaning. Her images have appeared in numerous publications on digital art.

She has been guest lecturer at many seminars and conferences, her work has been internationally exhibited and is part of museum, corporate and private collections. Her images appear in numerous publications on digital art including the APERTURE monograph METAMORPHOSES: PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE, WOMEN, ART AND TECHNOLOGY published by MIT press, ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE edited by Bruce Wands, School of Visual Art, NYC and her work has been internationally exhibited and is part of museum, corporate and private collections.

Recently however, Fenster has been moving away from the digital photomontage style that has brought her so much recognition and is venturing into an exploration of starker imagery that has its roots in toy camera photography, alternative process and photo-encaustic. Her work was exhibited in the 4th Biennale of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Berlin, she was a finalist in the Alternative Process category of the 9th Pollux Awards, a finalist in the Alternative Process and Portraits categories of the 7th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, a finalist in the Alternative Process and Fine Art categories of the 8th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, included in the Illuminate exhibit curated by Elizabeth Avedon, the Alternative Process exhibit juried by Christopher James at the Center for Fine Art Photography and published in the DIFFUSION ANNUAL 2016. Finalist in both the Fine Art and Nude & Figure Categories of the Second Charles Dodson Awards. Recent exhibits include FotofFoto gallery’s 13th National Competition, Let There be Light and Shadow at the Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York, Photography as Response at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Intimate Portraits exhibit at the SE Center for Photography, The Essence of Monochrome International Photo Competition sponsored byThe Stockholm Diary and exhibited in Budapest, SohoPhoto Alternative Process exhibit at the SohoPhoto Gallery in New York.

Charlotta Maria Hauksdottir says, "The physical space of landscapes can be closely tied to a person’s identity, sense of being, and infused with personal history. The composite, textured landscapes in the series “Imprints” are a re-creation of places and scenes from an estranged homeland. Several sheets of photographic paper with variable cutouts are layered together imitating landforms that have formed over time. The visible and obscured parts of the landscape suggest the interplay of effects between man and nature, as well as the imperfections of memory, with the bifurcated textures emphasizing the mind’s inability to retain and fully comprehend its environment. The discontinuity between the images also induces the viewer to draw on their own experiences to complete the work."

Charlotta María Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic artist based in California, working primarily in photography. Residing in the USA for over 15 years, she still draws inspiration from her home country Iceland. Her work centers around the unique connection one has to places and moments in time, and how memories embody and elevate those connections. Charlotta graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with an MFA in Photography, in 2004, and received a BA in Photography from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Italy, in 1997.
Her work has been exhibited around the world, with solo exhibitions in the USA, Russia, and Iceland, most recently at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography. She has received a number of awards and has been published in several magazines and books. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections all over the world, including corporate collections, the latest acquisition being by Stanford Health Care.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON 4 by Carolyn Doucette(Click on image for larger view)

Carolyn Doucette says of her series, 'How The West Was Won', This series investigates nature, place and past. Underlying my imagery is awareness that North America has been the site of significant historical trauma. As a Métis of mixed Mi’kmaw and French ancestry, I have a heightened awareness of the brutal aspects of our colonial past. The dyed porcupine quills woven through my landscape photographs, printed on canvas, are influenced by traditional Eastern Woodland Métis quillwork designs and are an offering of remembrance in honor of my indigenous ancestors and a celebration of a people that are still here despite many hardships. Originals 16.5x22 inches, archival inkjet print and dyed porcupine quills on canvas, 2017."

Born in North Dakota, of Mi'kmaw|Acadian descent, Carolyn Doucette is a Native American transmedia artist with a BFA from the University of Victoria. Her work has shown and screened at art galleries and film festivals in the US, Canada and Europe. Her work and research concerns the connection between humans and nature, the ecological implications of a nature/culture dichotomy in Western thought paradigms and the natural landscape vs. the "sublime" landscape. She lives in Santa Barbara, CA and is currently working on a mixed-media series exploring her indigenous heritage.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON 2 by Carolyn Doucette(Click on image for larger view)

HOW THE WEST WAS WON 1 by Carolyn Doucette(Click on image for larger view)

OH MOTHER I AM AFRAID TO DIE by Bob Weil(Click on image for larger view)

Bob Weil is a practicing mixed media pictorialist, teacher and writer living in Southern California.

Bob has presented workshops to the Santa Barbara Photography Club, at the Los Angeles Festival of Photography and at the Santa Monica Apple store.

Bob is currently a member of the advisory board of the Los Angeles Festival of Photography and the Lumiere Awards. He has also written on art topics for Digital Studio Magazine and Rocky Nook photography books. Bob’s online video course iPhoneography with Bob Weil (www.iPhonePhotoArtist.com) debuted to considerable success in 2014 and now has over 2,200 students in 53 countries.

Bob Weil is also co-author (with Nicki Fitz-Gerald) of "The Art of iPhone Photography – Creating Great Photos and Art on Your iPhone," featuring the work and creative process of 45 of the top iPhoneographers worldwide. He also writes on mobile art topics for iPhone Life and Digital Studio Magazine.

​Bob’s work has won numerous awards (including iPhone Photographer of the Year, 2013), and has been exhibited worldwide, most notably -

> The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in California
> The Darkroom Gallery in Vermont.
> The Soho Gallery for Digital Art in New York City and in Montreal.
> The Alexander Brest Museum in Jacksonville, Florida
> The MIRA exhibition in Oporto, Portugal
> The Los Angeles Festival of Photography
> The New Era Museum in Florence, Italy

LOST COLLAGE FROM THE INSTITUTE OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE by Bob Weil(Click on image for larger view)

INTER RELATIONAL CALCULUS by Bob Weil(Click on image for larger view)

USA by Bernadette Fox(Click on image for larger view)

Bernadette Fox says, "Farm Life" features the tangible simplicity of daily life on heartland farmsteads in the rural midwest. Capturing the often overlooked richness of objects that surround us and breaking through the monotony of everyday routines that we take for granted. Connorsville, Wisconsin (pop. 1,097). Mamiya 6, Kodak Portra film.

“As a documentarian, I focus my efforts on the hero’s journey of the everyday individual within their community. I’m intrigued by real people and what happens at the intersection of identity, challenge and change, and the defining moments of the human experience. Documenting those dynamics requires me to approach subjects from a place of great intimacy, while not neglecting to leave room for the spontaneous."

With my first anthropology course in college, I knew that I wanted to be a visual documentarian. Enchanted by the idea of combining art with real life, I promptly dropped out and moved Paris to study classical filmmaking… but mainly I just learned to survive on croissants and cigarettes. From there, I found myself in Boston for what turned into a 12 year detour in the world of advertising, adulthood, and project management; I was on the ground floor during the advent of online media and worked for interactive agencies with clients such as Hyundai, IKEA and Showtime. But I still wasn't crafting the type of projects that satisfied my creative spirit. So I returned to my original infatuation with documentary storytelling and haven’t looked back. As a photographer, I focus my efforts on the hero’s journey of the everyday individual within their community. I’m intrigued by real people and what happens at the intersection of identity, challenge and change, and the defining moments of the human experience. Documenting those dynamics requires me to approach subjects from a place of great intimacy, while not neglecting to leave room for the spontaneous.

My work has been featured by the Smithsonian Magazine International Photo Competition, the Darkroom Gallery in VT, and the MN State Fair Fine Art Exhibition. I’m a selected attendee of the Kalish Workshop at RIT and the Magnum Photos Long Format Documentary Workshop with Matt Black. I’m currently pursuing a Certificate in Documentary Studies at Duke University. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and always looking for the slightest excuse to travel and capture stories."

I NOTICED PEOPLE DISAPPEARED by Angela CasagrandeSecond Place(Click on image for larger view)

Angela Casagrande says, "The series "Memory of Place" is inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem "I Noticed People Disappeared. I explore the power of memory, the space memory occupies and the artifacts we leave behind in this space both physical and immaterial. My artwork keeps fading family stories and memories alive while reconnecting with ancestors and places that may have been lost over time.

My photography is an ongoing investigation of how our understanding and interactions with the world have been shaped by memory, in the form of ancestral history, folklore, dreams, culture, family, belief systems, and rituals."

Angela Casagrande lives and works in Sacramento, California and was a recipient of the 2015 Julia Margaret Cameron Award.

She has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Axis Gallery in Sacramento, California. Her group exhibitions include The Women’s Show at South x Southeast Photogallery in Molena, Georgia and Of Memory, Bone and Myth at the Colonel Eugene Myers Gallery of Art, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota. Her work is in the public collection at Colonel Eugene Myers Gallery of Art. She is currently working on a series of graphoscopes for her MFA Thesis Exhibition in 2018 at Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine.

Angela’s work is derived from her memories of family lore, genealogical research and nighttime dreams. By retelling these stories visually, she presents the viewer with the unique set of symbols she has found within them. To recreate these stories, she uses a mixture of personal and appropriated images, utilizing analog and digital formats. This approach creates visually rich, layered images that bridge the past and the present.

Angela was born and raised in Humboldt County, California. She received her B.A. in Fine Art from Humboldt State University and is an MFA candidate at Maine College of Art.

HIS VOICE DECREPIT WAS WITH JOY by Angela Casagrande(Click on image for larger view)

MEMORY OF PLACE, ME AND MY GRANDPA by Angela Casagrande(Click on image for larger view)

IMMERSION SERIES 3 by Amy Parrish(Click on image for larger view)

Amy Parrish says of her series, 'Immersion Series', "This work is part of my observation of a complex tradition steeped in mysticism at odds with the world we live in today. While living in India I found myself conflicted upon witnessing dozens of Hindu idols abandoned curbside for trash collection, never fulfilling their spiritual rites of immersion due to new regulations protecting against the pollution of local waterways. According to tradition, gods and goddesses visit the earth for a week of puja celebrations, housed within the vessel of an idol sculpture. They are released back to the spiritual realm by being immersed for a period of time in Ganga water.

I photographed fragments of these sculptures and submerged prints for several days in the Hooghly River, a distributary of the Ganges (Maa Ganga), where boatmen kept watch as tides rose and fell. The artworks revealed the same signs of decay as idols dredged from the river after puja. This process was a way to resolve my question on which would be a greater loss; rituals within one of the world’s most ancient traditions or a natural resource as essential as water?"

Amy Parrish is an internationally-exhibited artist who serves as Director of Operations and instructor for The Light Space, a program providing photography training for young women affected by the commercialized sex trade and to staff members of anti-trafficking organizations. In between long-term projects in India and Thailand she has spent two winters as an artist-in-residence in Midcoast Maine where she learned the practice of historic and alternative photo processes.

Through the previous decade, Parrish worked as an award-winning portrait photographer and traveled the United States teaching other professionals within the industry. Her work was featured on two seasons of Photovision and awarded "Best in Portrait" for WPPI's international photography competition. In 2014 she shifted her focus from commercial work to applying a much more personal, hand-processed approach. Her fine art imagery has been awarded the Julia Margaret Cameron Award as well as receiving several other awards and distinctions.

ICELAND EXPOSURE SIX by Ali Gradischer(Click on image for larger view)

Ali Gradischer says, "All the pieces within the ARTEMIS series were created while I was a resident at the Nes Artist Residency in Skagastrond, Iceland during January and February 2013. With this particular body of work, I found that the imagery I used seemed to be symbolic of a particularly guttural and keenly alive part of life within the town I was in. I chose to magnify and play with bone motifs to express my impressions of Iceland’s wildly elemental and exposed landscape. What you see in this work is representative of place, remoteness, and wild grit.

My first step in starting this series focused on working with the imagery. It was not uncommon to find large animal bones strewn about the rugged Icelandic terrain or washed up on the beach, so I decided to take photos of the bones and then enlarge those images on to the paper. Abandoning the traditional cyanotype process, I chose to use the bone imagery as the boundaries for where I would paint, not print, with the cyanotype photo chemicals.

I began to notice how physical the process became when creating this work, and quickly decided to keep going with it. By letting the chemicals pool, sweep, swirl, saturate, and shift across the paper slowly and progressively, I realized that I was no longer interested in the creation of photograms. Rather than making the photogram the central focus of the cyanotypes I made, I wanted to highlight what the chemistry could do. I found that I was more intrigued by the way the chemistry moved across the paper to create a wide range of colors and textures, and as such, each of these cyanotypes was created in reaction to the one made before it.

I kept asking myself, could I consider these pieces to be cyanotypes? Because historically, the cyanotype was meant to record and present specific information, or used to expose an image of something else. What is presented is the total breakdown and abstracted reconfiguration of the traditional cyanotype process, so much so that I’m striving to question the basic constitution of what a cyanotype can be."

Ali Gradischer is an artist, photomaker, and freelance photographer based in Portland, Oregon. Her work uses photography, drawing, printmaking, and travel as the fuel to explore the many different seasons of her life. Gradischer has exhibited locally as well as nationally, and has participated in artist residencies in Iceland, Germany, and in White Salmon, WA.

Gradischer received her MFA in Applied Craft and Design through the Pacific Northwest College of Art + Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2011, and her BS in Interior Design from Appalachian State University in 2008. She is a recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission Career Development Grant, and multiple Regional Arts & Culture Council Professional Development Grants. In 2017, she founded Held in Common, a photography studio dedicated to capturing everyday stories through the magic of film, as well as providing a variety of photo-based workshops around the Pacific Northwest region.

Abbey Hepner say of her series, 'Optogenetic Cybernetic Translations', "In the series, Optogenetic Cybernetic Translations, I am investigating the artist and scientist as translators of data that illuminate the connections existing in the broader world. My collaborator, scientist Mike Avery, is researching optogenetics, a technique that involves the use of light to manipulate neurons in the brain. I used images from his lab: histological brain sections, stained with immunohistochemical markers, and imaged using confocal microscopy. I then explored how artificial intelligence might interpret these brain scans, creating metaphors for what the future might hold as technology infiltrates our fields.

I used computer vision software, which is a technology concerned with the automatic interpretation, analysis and understanding of information from a single image, to interpret the brain scans. The results of this interpretation included an aurora, fireflies, bioluminescence, rust or texture, light, and military night vision. I paired each brain scan with its corresponding AI translation, resulting in interesting metaphors between cognition and a world full of beautiful, or potentially frightening, phenomenon. By allowing our collaborative work to be interpreted by a third party we are embracing the fact that our work is larger than ourselves and never wholly in our control.

Because lenticular prints are hard to see as still images (but make sense for the theme of this exhibition) I am including a web video of the work being walked in front of in an exhibition."

Abbey Hepner is an artist and educator investigating the human relationship with landscape and technology. She frequently works at the intersection of art and science, navigating through collaborative and research-oriented practices.

Her work explores ethical gray areas where humanity and industry collide, illuminating the increasingly common use of health as a currency. She received her MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico. Hepner’s work has been exhibited widely in such venues as the Mt. Rokko Photography Festival, Kobe, Japan; Central Features, Albuquerque, NM; San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA; Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen, Netherlands; and the Newspace Center For Photography, Portland, OR. She frequently presents at conferences including the 2015 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2016 and 2017 Society for Photographic Education conferences.